Fanø Kite Festival

Dragons - they really do exist  

Where do kites, kite building, and kite flying come from?

From China!

And where does the world’s largest kite meeting take place?

On Fanø!

The Fanø International Kitefliers Meeting attracts more than five thousand people from all over the world,

who meet to cultivate their common passion, flying kites.

But why here precisely?

It is not just the wide, open beach and the North Sea wind that tie kite flying and China to Fanø. During Fanø’s golden age of shipping in the nineteenth century, Fanø ships and Fanø sailors navigated

out into the world and traded with China.

Another Chinese invention, the compass, made it possible for sailors to find their way home.

They brought back products that became important for Fanø.

Silk became part of the traditional Fanø costume, chinaware appeared in kitchens, and here and there on the island the boxthorn Lycium began growing – and today, its goji berries are healthy and rank as one of the world’s “super foods.”

But, perhaps, most importantly, they brought with them the wide horizon and the vision that is now prominent on the island, and we celebrate this by flying kites and sending them up into the infinite sky.